When players ask for a nerf, and you do it, why do you make an underhanded buff as well?

[lightstalker.1498]

Like, please accept, players dont want certain classes to always be dominant.

[Kuma.1503]

Are you talking about the warrior buff? You may need to be more specific

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I don't know the specific event in question, but I know why Anet does this in general. A surprisingly large population of players don't understand what a nerf is on a fundamental level. So, whenever an overperforming profession gets reduced in power, players who main that profession complain that they were given nothing to compensate for their loss.

I've brought it up multiple times that the whole point of a nerf is to reduce the overall performance of a profession, and that giving buffs to compensate would keep that profession overpowered. They never listen, though. An easy way to keep the community from complaining too much is to give a few paltry buffs to skills that weren't doing anything anyway, so the players will feel less slighted by the balance patch.

[Kuma.1503]

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:I don't know the specific event in question, but I know why Anet does this in general. A surprisingly large population of players don't understand what a nerf is on a fundamental level. So, whenever an overperforming profession gets reduced in power, players who main that profession complain that they were given nothing to compensate for their loss.

I've brought it up multiple times that the whole point of a nerf is to reduce the overall performance of a profession, and that giving buffs to compensate would keep that profession overpowered. They never listen, though. An easy way to keep the community from complaining too much is to give a few paltry buffs to skills that weren't doing anything anyway, so the players will feel less slighted by the balance patch.

Nerfs can serve more than one purpose.

Imagine you have a class that is middle of the pack as in terms of strength. However, one single trait is degenerate and leads to overwhelming player frustration.

but...

Every viable build that class has relies on that trait in order to function.

What do you do?

Naturally, you'd want to nerf the degenerate part of the build, but you'd be killing off the class that wasn't all that strong in the process.

So you bring up power in other areas while nerfing the degenerate trait. If done properly, power remains the same. However, the resulting builds are also more healthy for the game and far less frustrating to fight against.

One example of many for why you'd give out a buff in conjunction with a nerf.

[Lucio.4190]

I'm usually against nerfing, no matter class.I always start by asking, have I tried all possible combinations yet? Have I tried other builds? Have I tried other weapons, other runes on my weapons? Is this build for offense or defense?If I can't beat him, it's probably me. How can I become better?

With the history of nerfing, what would happen if I find a build as a Mesmer where I will be able to beat a Revenant or Guardian 8 times out of 10? Will probably the last possible build for a competitive Mesmer be nerfed again, or will those Revenants and Guardians start investigating a new build?Looking back at history, there will probably be some whining on the forums and then the Mesmer will be nerfed again.

Nerfing should be the last possible solution, when nothing else works. If we restored all classes to their original prime and glory, I believe the game would have been more balanced than it is now after all that nerfing and "rebalancing" that's been going on during these years.